Turkish Kitchen Meze and grill — Restaurant in Great Britain

Vegetarians and vegans need to take care!

We stayed in Durham for a night and fancied something different but couldn't decide where to eat. As we walked past, the guy from Turkish Kitchen Meze told us that he would look after us and give us a great meal with a romantic table... We thought "why not?" And went in. He did, indeed, give us a romantic table in the corner and came over with the menu shortly. My wife is vegan and I'm vegetarian, so we had the hummus and pitta to start. It was great! For the 2nd course, I ordered a vegetarian moussaka and my wife had one of the vegan dishes. While I was eating the moussaka, I thought it wasn't quite right and asked the waiter to check. He said "you've got the beef moussaka" - I'll bring you a vegetarian one. I had eaten a quarter of it so was not happy about eating something that had meat in it - I've been vegetarian for over 30 years! I put it behind me and tried to get on with our evening, I didn't want this to spoil our trip! Having tried both, the vegetarian one was better...

Anyway, during the meal, my wife started to complain of a migraine. This happens when she eats something with dairy in it and is one of the reasons she originally became vegan - it's far simpler to say "I'm vegan" instead of explaining that you're vegetarian but can't eat dairy produce.

It turns out, that the meals served as vegan are served with butter mixed into the rice!

I wanted to rate 1 star, but the staff did try and make things right, so 2 stars it is.

The restaurant is cosy and the food was good but watch out if you are...

This place is worth a visit. First of all, the service stands out -you feel welcomed when you come in, the waiters look smart, friendly but not too much in your face. Tip isn't automatically included, so mention it when you pay if you feel they deserve it. I tried white Turkish wine and it was perfect! (for around £25 a bottle) Should have ordered something from the grill, but going for a safe choice of spicy lamb stew was, well, too safe- turkish curry was well made but a bit boring if you are used to indian. My friend found her happy dish -staffed aubergine. Our first impression was they economised on side rice, but no, actually for both of us that amount was just right. Scout points for not wasting food! I didn't like the thin steel pans they use to serve the stew, they get cold very quickly. At 6 there wasn't many in the restaurant. But at 7 it almost filled up. Definetly...

Visited Saturday 18/05/2024 Staff very pleasant and attentive, service was very quick throughout. Nice setting, clean and modern. We very much enjoyed generous starters of Turkish Sausage (£7.50), and Mussels (£8.95), served with Turkish bread. For mains I had the Mixed Grill – though tasty, this certainly wasn’t as big as I was expecting for £22.95. It consisted of a lamb cutlet, plus several chunks of kofteh / shish meat, rice and side salad. My partner had Chicken Iskender – this was a larger dish for £18.95, but was basically all the same taste and texture throughout, so he found it hard going and couldn’t finish it. The fries were just that, much like you’d get in McDonalds. As I say, good in some respects, but I don’t think an early return...